MO'S TOWN: In 16 years on the sidelines, Mo Hicks has made Rice one of the city's preeminent hoops programs. Damion Reid

Mo Hicks is sitting in a Starbucks on 125th Street, just a block north of Rice High School, when he begins to share some memories of St. John’s in its glory days.

“There was nothing like it, the excitement you felt everywhere,” he told The Post. “And it wasn’t by accident. [Former St. John’s assistant coach] Ron Rutledge and coach [Lou] Carnesecca would be up here all the time. He’d be in every playground, every gym.”

“Guys would look over and whisper, ‘That’s Coach right there,’ ” Hicks added.

Hicks would love to see St. John’s back among the college basketball elite, and he is one of the few power brokers in New York who can make it happen. In 16 years as coach at Rice he has established himself and his program as class operations.

Hicks, who coached collegiate standouts Kemba Walker, Russell Robinson and Edgar Sosa among others, is on the verge of taking a job on new Red Storm coach Steve Lavin’s staff as director of basketball operations. Hicks has had plenty of chances to leave Rice for a college job, but two factors usually held him back.

Hicks, who also oversees the powerful Gauchos AAU program, developed a devotion to Rice and its mission of turning boys into polished young men. And Hicks did not want to go to a college program just for the sake of saying he made it.

But when Lavin got the St. John’s job and reached out to him, Hicks said he thought back about a decade to when he had Andre Barrett playing at Rice and Lavin — then the UCLA coach — came calling.

“They were trying to get in late, but I owe it to all my kids to let them know who’s interested,” Hicks said. “It was UCLA. And more I spoke to Coach Lavin, the more impressed I was. He was very truthful and I appreciated that.”

Hicks said he was shocked when Lavin, a West Coast guy, suddenly emerged as the Red Storm’s top choice. And he was surprised when Lavin called to discuss a position on the staff.

The courtship has proceeded slowly. Hicks said his priorities are fulfilling his commitment to Rice — making certain the administration knows he will assist the transition in any way possible — and making certain all of his players and their families know he will always have their backs.

Under a new rule, St. Johns cannot recruit a player out of the programs Hicks is affiliated with for two years. Yet if Hicks is hired as an assistant coach, instead of the director of basketball operations, the rule does not apply.

“You develop a trust and understand with a player and his family, and then he can’t play for you because of the job description,” Hicks said. “It’s like becoming a teacher in the science department at a college and being told you can’t teach that student. But if you’re the head of the department then you can teach him.”

It has been years since St. John’s has been able to convince the city’s elite prep players to stay home. There are numerous theories about why — most prominent the rise of other Big East programs and the expansion of television exposure.

But Hicks sounds like a convincing recruiter when he explains why he can sell St. John’s.

“There is nothing like being a champion in your own town,” he said. “I know. I’ve lived it. You can go to any one of those schools — Connecticut, Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky — and be a star in their towns. Or you can be a star in your town. Nothing like it.”

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Lavin soon could land his first recruit as California high school swingman Dwayne Polee seems to have switched his heart from Georgia to St. John’s.

Another highly touted West Coast swingman, Remi Barry, also is looking hard at the Johnnies. Barry is a 6-foot-7 native of France who moved to California but was denied eligibility to play prep ball by the California Interscholastic Federation.